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The tunnel that connected thecenter was cool, dih it, he was by hi surrounded by happy people when you felt like death

When he got to the door that led into the back of the office&039;s closet, he put in the code, waited for the lock to pop, and pushed his way inside A quick trip past the stationery and pens, and through another door, and he was going around the desk Next thing he knew, he was in the corridor in front of the weight roo for After what the Brotherhood had done to him, he was stiff and achy - especially in the ars

Man, his hands were still nuers, he knehat arthritis felt like for the first tiain when he got to the clinic area As he went to straighten his clothes, he realized he was still wearing only the robe

He wasn&039;t going back to change; that was for sure

Knocking on the recovery room&039;s door, he said, "Luchas? You up?"

"Come in," was the hoarse reply

He had to brace hilad he did

Lying on the bed with his head propped up, Luchas still looked as if he were on the verge of extinction The face that Qhuinn had rerim The body was painfully thin And those hands

Jesus Christ, the hands

And he thought his ached a little bit?

He cleared his throat "Hey"

"Hello"

"Soyeah How you been?"

Fucking duh on that one The guy was staring at weeks of bed rest, and thento be lucky if he could ever hold a pen again

Luchas winced as he tried to lift his shoulders in a shrug "I&039;m surprised you came"

"Well, you&039;re uy was not, in fact, any relation of his "I meanyeah"

Luchas closed his eyes "I have always, and will always, be your blood No piece of paper can change that"

Qhuinn&039;s eyes went to that"I think Father would very ree with you"

"He&039;s dead So his opinion is no longer relevant"

Qhuinn blinked

When he didn&039;t say anything, Luchas popped his lids open "You seem surprised"

"No offense, but I never expected to hear that come out of your mouth"

The ed"

Qhuinn reached over and pulled a chair out for himself; as he sat down, he rubbed his face He had coed brother was the only re a party thrown in your honor

And spending the night watching Blay and Saxton together? Not going to happen

Except now that he was here, he didn&039;t think he was up to any kind of conversation

"What happened with the house?" Luchas asked

"Ahnothing I mean, afterwhat happened went down, no one claihts to it When it reverted to Wrath, he gave it back to me - but listen, it&039;s yours I haven&039;t been inside of it since I got kicked out"

"I don&039;t want it"

Okaaaaaaaaaaay, another big surprise Growing up, his brother had talked nonstop of everything he&039;d wanted to acco, the social pro over where their father left off

Hi down a throne - unfathomable

"Have you ever been tortured?" Luchas murmured

His childhood came to oing to bust the guy&039;s balls "I been knocked around some"

"I&039;ll bet What happened afterward?"

"What do you ain?"

Qhuinn flexed his sore hands, looking at his own fingers that were all perfectly functional and intact in spite of the aches His brother wasn&039;t going to be able to count to ten anyeneration another entirely

"There is no noroing, because that&039;s all you got The hardest thing is being with other people - it&039;s like they&039;re on a different wavelength, but only you know it They talk about their lives and what&039;s wrong with theo It&039;s a whole different language, and you&039;ve got to reue It&039;s really hard to relate"

"Yes, that&039;s exactly right," Luchas said slowly "That&039;s right"

Qhuinn scrubbed his face again "I never expected to have anything in common with you"

But they did As Luchas looked over, those perfectly matched eyes met Qhuinn&039;s fucked-up ones, and the connection was there: They had both been through hell, and that lockstep was more powerful than the common DNA they shared

It was so weird

And funny, he guessed tonight was the night for him to find family everywhere

Except the one place he wanted it

As silence prevailed, with nothing but the steady beeping of the machinery by the bedside to break up the quiet, Qhuinn stayed for a long while He and his brother didn&039;t talk much, and that was okay That hat he wanted He wasn&039;t ready to open up to the guy about Layla or the young, and he supposed it was telling that Luchas didn&039;t ask if he wasup the Blay thing

It was good to sit with his brother, though There was sorew up around, the ones you&039;d seen throughout your childhood, the folks you couldn&039;t re Even if the past was a colad the sons of bitches were still on the planet

It gave you the illusion that life wasn&039;t as fragile as it actually was - and on occasion, that was the only thing that got you through the night

"I&039;d better go so you can rest," he said, rubbing his knees, waking up his legs

Luchas turned his head on that hospital pillow "Odd dress for you, isn&039;t it?"

Qhuinn glanced down at the black robe "Oh, this old thing? I just threw it on"

"Looks cere?" Qhuinn stood up "Food?"

"I&039;h But thank you"

"Well, you let me know, okay"

"You are a very decent fellow, Qhuinn, you know that?"

Qhuinn&039;s heart stopped, and then beat hard That was the phrase that their father had always used to describe gentlemalesit was the A-plus of co and a high five frohly "You, too"

"How can you say that?" Luchas cleared his throat "How in the nain Scribe can you say that?"

Qhuinn exhaled hard "You want the bottoive you it You were the favorite I was the curse - ere on opposite ends of the scale in that household But neither one of us had a chance You were no more free than I was You had no choice about your future - it was predeteret-out-of-jail, because it meant he didn&039;t care about ot to decide what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go Younever had a fucking chance You were nothing but a math equation already solved when you were conceived, all the answers predeterain and shuddered "I keep running it throughup, froht when" He coughed a little, like his chest hurt, or maybe his heart rhythm onky "I hated him Did you know that?"

"No But I can&039;t say it surprises o back in that house again"

"Then you don&039;t have to But if you doI&039;ll go with you"

Luchas looked over once again "Really?"